Teasing
by missinhalf
Summary: [prompt] "Sasuke going through puberty/awks teen years. He discovers the appeal of his pink haired teammate." It's hard to keep his crush a secret when everyone can see it and enjoys to tease him about it. non-massacre AU


**a/n: **_based off saucysasusaku's prompt from tumblr_

There are a lot of things that Sasuke is interested in, but he never imagined that his pink haired teammate would be one of them. At the age of thirteen, he's starting to understand why Naruto tries so hard to impress her during training and why Rock Lee persistently peruses her.

He doesn't understand why he's starting to feel this way. He's never found any girl appealing; he's always thought of them as fellow classmates or in Sakura's case, a teammate. Never would he have thought that he would feel something more for one of them.

Sparring with her is difficult, when he doesn't want to strike her too hard to bruise her flawless ivory skin with patches of black and blue. He doesn't attack her, instead he has her attacking him so she could tire herself out so that he would manage to beat her without having to land a punch or kick on her.

"Why are you going easy on Sakura-chan, huh Teme?" he hears Naruto hollers from underneath the tree, watching from the sidelines with Kakashi who has his nose buried in his inappropriate book.

His cheeks flush from Naruto's observation which he hopes would look like he's flushed from training and not because he actually is going easy on her.

"So he can tell I'm going easy on her, but yet he can't tell which direction my shurikens are coming from," he muses as he recalls one of his stars piercing his right thigh which prompted Sakura to rush towards them, screaming his name. Recalling the past hour took his mind off his spar with Sakura so he fails to see when Sakura suddenly appears behind him, knocking him to the ground with a swift kick.

From the ground, he could hear Naruto laughing up a storm. He scoffs under his breath from having his jealously get the better of him.

"Are you okay, Sasuke-kun," her sweet voice breaks him out of his brooding state. He feels her hand on his back and glances to his left to see that she is kneeling beside, wearing a face of worry.

"I'm fine," he says standing up.

She stands as well, keeping her hand on his back, surprised that he hadn't shrugged her off.

Kakashi and Naruto make their way towards them. Upon their arrival, Kakashi, with his nose still in his book, dismisses them for the day and jumps up into the trees, leaving his team.

Naruto snickers at Sasuke having witnessed his rival getting his butt kicked by Sakura. Sasuke glares at Naruto, but that doesn't stop Naruto as he continues to tease him.

"Sakura-chan, my leg still hurts," he whines when he sees her arm is still on Sasuke's back.

She drops her arm from around Sasuke causing him to internally frown as he doesn't wanting to display that emotion on his face for Naruto or her to see.

Crossing her arms at her chest, she rolls her emerald eyes that are practically glowing from the way the sun hits them. "If it still hurts go get it checked at the hospital. Not my fault you can't dodge shurikens."

Sasuke smirks at her jab at Naruto as his plan backfires.

"B-but Sakura-chan, I don't think I can walk properly. It just hurts _so_ bad," he cries out, stomping his right leg, which was pierced with the shuriken, on the ground.

"If it hurts so bad just hop home, but seeing you can complain while stomping on the ground with it, I'll say you'll be just fine," she says with a smug grin.

Sasuke can't help but chuckle, not caring that Naruto was staring at him with anger.

"I don't know why you're laughing for," Naruto exclaims, pointing sharply at Sasuke, "I'm not the one who got my ass kicked by a girl."

"What. Did. You. Just. Say," Sakura growls as she cracks her knuckles on each hand, glaring daggers at Naruto.

"What? N-no, Sakura-chan. I didn't mean it like that. I-I just meant-"

Before Naruto could finish, Sakura's fist meets with Naruto's jaw, sending him flying a few feet back.

"Say something stupid like that again and next time you wouldn't have a mouth to say it with," she threatens, shaking a fist at him.

"Now, what did you say about getting their butt kicked by a girl," he taunts as he watches Naruto cowering in fear from their pink haired teammate.

"What did you say, bastard?! Come fight me or are you too chicken to face me because you know I'm going to make you cry," Naruto yells, scrambling to his feet.

"I'll pass," Sasuke says as he turns around to leave. "Besides," he calls out from over his shoulder, "I wasn't the one cowering in fear just now."

Slowly, Sasuke walks away hoping Sakura would ask to walk home with him, like she always does, but instead of rejecting her, he's going to agree and take her home. He tries to convince himself that he's only going to agree to get on Naruto's nerve, but he know it's because of another reason. He wants to spend more time with her, but he doesn't want to voice it due to his pride. It's not because he cares about what others say, it's because he has no experience whatsoever about this whole new situation, and he has no one to turn to for help about it without being teased.

"Wa-wait, Sasuke-kun," he hears Sakura calling out to him as he smirks. "Do you want to-"

"Yes," he says a bit too eagerly, cutting her off. "I'll take you home."

He doesn't have to turn around to know that Naruto's mouth is hanging wide open, after having poured salt all over his wounded ego. He also knows that Sakura is blushing bright red that she probably looks like a tomato.

She jogs up to him and they walk side by side into the village.

With her hands on either side of her, their hands would accidently brush. In Sakura's case, it's an accident, but Sasuke would try to subtly cause them to brush. Each time their hands touch, he feels a spark where their skin meets. He would glance over at her once in a while, out of the corner of his eyes, and he sees that her eyes are trained on the ground and she's biting her lips as if she's embarrassed.

"Are you okay?" he blurts out. He mentally kicks himself when Sakura quickly turns her head around to face him.

"Oh, yes," she beams a breath taking smile at him which causes his heart to skip a beat. He tries his hardest not to let his feelings show on his face. "I'm fine."

"Hn."

She turns her attention back in front of her, her cheeks slightly flushed.

There's a brief moment of awkward silence as Sasuke urges himself to try and open his mouth to talk to her.

"So-"

"I'm-"

They both stop in the middle of the street and stare at one another.

"What were you going to say," he asks a little too blunt for his liking.

She giggles. "Sorry for cutting you off, but I was going to apologize for kicking you in the back," her lips form a frown which doesn't make him happy as she should not be wearing one or apologizing since she did nothing wrong. It was him who had let his jealously get the better of him which made him to drop his guard.

"You did nothing wrong to apologize to me," he informs her, starting to walk again. "It was my fault, there was something on my mind."

She catches up to him and they continue to walk side by side.

"What was on your mind?"

Sasuke mentally curses himself for confessing he wasn't paying attention, because he doesn't know how to tell her what was on his mind without lying to her, and that was the last thing he wanted to do: lie.

"Naruto distracted me," he quickly says. "That idiot shouldn't be screaming out such nonsense when he sees a spar occurring."

She grins. "So you really were going easy on me, weren't you," she says with confidence.

"W-what? No, of course not," he lies, but she's able to see through it.

"Whatever you say, Sasuke-kun," she chimes as she looks at him and smiles.

"Do you-" He stops midsentence when Sakura stops in front of her house and turns to face him.

"Do I, what," she asks, cocking her head to the side, wearing a perplexed look.

"Never mind," he says taking a step back. "I'm going to go now."

"No, tell me," she calls out to him, frowning.

Sasuke will never admit it, but he always caves into her demands whenever she frowns and he has a feeling she knows this.

"I was going to ask you," he trails on, his onyx eyes meet green. He takes in the way her expression is filled with hope, the same expression she used to wear when she used to ask him out on dates when their team first formed. "If you wanted to train with me tomorrow. Alone," he quickly adds, averting eye contact.

When she doesn't reply, he raises his glance and he sees that her eyes have widened with shock, but she's wearing the brightest smile he's ever seen her wear.

"Yes," she exclaims. "I'll see you tomorrow on the training field?"

"Yeah. I'll see you then," he says before he turns and walks away.

On his way home he bumps into his brother who was on his way home as well.

"Are you coming back from training with your team," Itachi asks as they turn the corner and continue down the street.

"Yeah, why?" His older brother knew that he was meeting up with his team to train today so he thought his question was strange.

"No reason. It's just that the training ground is in the opposite direction than where you were coming from when we bumped into one another," he explains.

Sasuke doesn't want to admit he walked Sakura home because he knows his brother is going to tease him about it, but his brother is older and wiser than him so maybe, just maybe, he'll be mature about it and give him the advice he so desperately wants.

"I walked Sakura home," he confesses with a straight face, while on the inside he was embarrassed and wanted find a rock to crawl under.

A smirk plays across Itachi's face as he diverts his glance towards his little brother. "Did you spar against her today?"

An unusual question for his brother to ask. He was in a squad before so he had to know that he would have to spar against her every time they meet to train.

"Yes."

"And you lost." He doesn't ask, but he states instead.

Sasuke doesn't say anything as he looks sideways towards his brother. When Sasuke doesn't answer his question, Itachi turns his glance back onto the street.

"Well it would appear that my little brother has a crush on his teammate," he says with a smile.

His eyes widen as he whips his head in the direction of his older brother. "What?!"

"Since you got into your team last year, to my knowledge, you've never lost against her, but now suddenly you do? Tell me, what was going through your mind when you were fighting her."

He can recall clear as day what was going through his mind when he fought her and it would be over his dead body if he were to share that information with him. Instead, Sasuke quickens his pace and walks ahead, blushing, which prompts Itachi to laugh.


End file.
